


Mix and Match

by Mossgreen



Series: 2770 ab urbe condita [52]
Category: 2770 ab urbe condita - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Rome, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Non-Sexual Slavery, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 18:10:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18783454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossgreen/pseuds/Mossgreen
Summary: Ven is not particularly good at crafts, but he tries. It's all a bit of fun anyway.





	Mix and Match

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything - I haven't forgotten about this series at all! 
> 
> I've gone for a slight style change here; I haven't italicised the Latin words in this one. I'd be interested to hear whether you prefer them to be italicised in the main text, or not!

Ven had never really been one for crafting, particularly, or drawing, or any creative hobby like that, but he’d been struck with an idea this evening, during one of those quiet peaceful times when Master watched TV while Ven knelt beside him, reading or preparing a lesson for Briseis. He had been signed up to a website specifically for slave education (both teachers and learners) where there were structured lesson plans and ideas - most vernae never went to school to receive a formal education, although slaves were permitted to take certain of the exams offered to the free, and receive the same awards, so the usually untrained people who taught them required some help, especially if they did not have access to the books and materials offered by schools. The app allowed access to all sorts of (slave-appropriate) materials selected by the master - some masters only permitted certain subjects or topics to be taught.

Naturally, there was no single standard of education for slaves; some vernae had as many qualifications as some free people (maybe more!) and some had only basic reading and writing skills. There were numerous vernae who were functionally illiterate, and that was not considered to be unusual or scandalous in any way. Obviously, nexi and rei had whatever qualifications as slaves that they’d held when free, although they might not be able to make use of them as slaves - there were certain jobs slaves were not permitted to do, such as doctor and lawyer and some other professions.

Ven usually taught Briseis via the internet; the app allowed both of them to see the text, and also allowed Ven to see the written work Briseis did, in a similar way to the app he used when making suggestions in his master’s meetings - the note-taker or student wrote with a stylus (or typed via a keyboard) and the work appeared on the master’s (or teacher’s) screen, in real-time. It could be a two-way process (with the other able to add comments, or their own notes, to the text) but often was not.

He was on his tabula, tapping his way through the app, looking for fun games and things suitable for an eight-year-old; he liked to spend his visits with Briseis doing things that were impossible to do in distance learning, and wanted to make their weekly visits fun. The advantage was that Briseis, like himself, was verna; Ven himself had been very aware that not all slaves got to learn, and Briseis was likewise aware of that on some level - slave students wanted to learn, they knew intimately the advantages to them if they did, and that they would be at a real disadvantage if they did not. A literate slave was more likely to have a better role in the house and be able to earn more pecūlium, after all, than an illiterate one.

He found what he was after and adjusted his position a little, looking up at his master, who looked down at him indulgently. 

"What is it, pet?"

"May I use the printer, please, Master?" He held his tabula up so Master could see what he’d been looking at.

Master smiled and passed it back to him. "You may."

The printer in the tablīnum chattered to life moments later. Master’s fingers tightened fractionally in his hair as Ven began to get up, only releasing him when he settled down again. Master clicked his fingers and indicated the study entrance, sending Moss scuttling to fetch the printouts.

Ven would much prefer to do his own fetching and carrying, but _he_ was a slave, Moss was a slave, their wishes were subject to their master’s.

Ven accepted the sheets of paper from his fellow slave and looked at them.

"Pet." 

He looked up. "Master?"

"You should back those with card. Moss."

"Master?" The word was half-strangled; Moss had clearly not expected to be brought into this conversation.

"You do card-making, don’t you? Run and fetch… some card, a ruler, a craft knife, glue and a cutting mat - I presume you have those supplies in the craft room?"

"Yes, Master."

"Pet? Run and fetch a leash from the playroom."

What? That made no sense… "Yes, Master."

He was on his way to the playroom before he quite realised it, his cosy mood dissipating somewhat. A leash… Master had several, they were useful for training slaves to keep the required three paces behind when accompanying Master anywhere, although Ven had never seen him use one, had certainly never been required to be put on the leash himself.

The leashes were all hanging on the wall near the training room door: several varieties, all equally good for leashing a dog as a slave. Chain, no. Nylon… why did Master have nylon, it was cheap and nasty. Leather. Cotton rope. Another chain one, this one with a handle shaped like a cock-and-balls (that one was definitely a slave leash, the others might just as easily have been bought in a pet shop as a slave supply store.)

Master didn’t often make him choose completely freely. He ignored the chain ones and found himself debating between the leather and rope. He could only imagine that whatever he chose was going to be clipped to his own collar, though he could not begin to think why, when he had been settled so comfortably at his master’s feet, with Master’s hand in his hair.

The leather was nice and soft; strong and tough, but soft. Ven wrapped the loop of it about his wrist, and then the cotton rope. He liked the cotton rope, it was soft, too… but the leather was more _like_ Master. Dark brown leather, not black, not tan. Soft and long enough to connect a slave’s collar to his master’s hand from three paces, without tugging.

He returned to the atrium to find that Moss had beaten him, despite having to bring more things - Moss had received a clear direction on what to fetch, Ven hadn’t. The materials were placed neatly in front of the cushion Ven had been kneeling on, along with the printouts and his tabula.

He knelt again, offering the leash to his master, and resting his head against his master’s knee.

"Good boy, Ven. Nice choice." There was a slight tugging at the chain around his neck, and then a soft click that was only audible because it was close to his ear. A hand carding through his hair, which made him close his eyes. He liked his master playing with his hair, and didn’t give two straws what anyone else thought of it.

"Right, pet. You were going to do something with those, weren’t you?"

He nodded against his master’s leg, wanting to get back into that cosy comfortable place before doing anything else. The hand in his hair was helping, and the sounds of the TV. Cosy domestic bliss… 

Eventually he found himself kneeling on all fours, glueing the printouts to a sheet of card and carefully cutting them out. Master would probably let him use a table if he wanted, but he didn’t want. There was something nice about doing this sort of work on the floor rather than on a table, it made him feel a bit like a kid again. 

Moss had even included a pencil so that he could make all the cards the same size. The leash from his collar to Master’s hand offered a connection he didn’t know he’d needed, despite his deliberate proximity to his master’s leg. He paired the cards up - one of each pair had a word printed on it, the other had a picture, all sorts of things from tunic to ball to dog to collar to toga to slave… Normal flash-cards were fine over the Kerne connection they used for their normal lessons, but this would be fun.

It might be a simple game, but it was (hopefully!) a fun one, and would be easy to play. There were some new words, too, and some older ones. It wouldn’t take long to play it a couple of times and then they could practise writing, or look at the new history book Master had provided - Ven knew very little history of any description and found it fascinating, though like Briseis he still preferred the books with pictures in. Probably because he really didn’t know much history at all.

Eventually he set the material aside and straightened back up.

"Let me see them," Master said, indulgently. Ven offered them up to him, feeling greatly daring at resting his chin on his master’s knee to do so. Master just laughed and ruffled his hair before taking the slips of card and looking through them.

"Very good." Master reached to unclip the leash from Ven’s collar. "Go into the tablinum and bring the laminator out. And a packet of heavy-duty laminating pouches."

"Yes, Master." Ven looked up at him, a little confused but got up to do as ordered, placing it on the table by Master’s couch when he returned to the atrium.

"They will last much longer if they’re laminated, after all," Master pointed out as the machine heated up. Ven hadn’t thought about that, hadn’t thought to ask about it. Probably because he was not the sort of person who really did much crafting, and took no real notice of any of the activities carried on upstairs in the craft room. He spent his free time, when he had any time away from his master’s side, curled up on the sofa in the slaves’ common room downstairs, rather than in the craft room upstairs, reading.

He didn’t know how much time it took to laminate the cards and cut them out, neatly, giving each the same size of border around them, enough that the pieces wouldn’t separate too quickly. The leash had been clipped on again at some point and it occurred to Ven, somewhere at the back of his mind, that it might be for Master’s comfort as much as his own. He shifted a little closer, pressing against his owner’s leg as he worked to make a box for the cards, a way to keep them all together.

It didn’t take him long, he knew what a box pattern should look like. Measuring the stack of cards was the hardest part, and drawing a template to cut out to turn into the box wasn’t too difficult after that. Eventually he set everything aside and lifted the finished thing to show Master, finding himself in a strange sort of headspace where he wanted his master to see it and approve of his efforts.

"Very nice, Ven. Moss, you can return the craft things to the craft-room."

"Yes, Master." Moss moved from his position by the wall to clear up after Ven, who could only give him an apologetic look, even though he remembered himself how boring it could be to just stand in the atrium - any little errand made that chore exciting by comparison. It was one reason Willow had the house slaves work on a rotation basis - atrium duty one day, whatever behind-the-scenes duties were needed the next. Anything to keep life semi-interesting.

Ven had tomorrow’s lesson plan worked out and everything made that he might want, now, and settled back beside Master, enjoying just being, with his master’s fingers carding through his hair, until it was time for bed.

* * *

Autumn was… Well, spring was Ven’s favourite time of year, or it had been while he still lived in Campania. Autumn was undeniably pretty, though, with all the different colours that the trees went, and the azure blue of the sky, with the umbrella pines stark against it. The stonework of the road glowed golden and off to the side were field workers, gathering the harvest in by hand as they had for centuries.

The car wheels made a pleasant burring sound over the regularly-shaped stones of the road surface. Ven was growing used to these trips out into the country, and had to remind himself that it was never ever a good idea for a slave to grow used to anything, to expect anything as a given, because it could easily be snatched away by the whim of the master.

He glanced sideways at his master, who seemed to be in a good mood - as much as he ever was, anyway. It seemed Master enjoyed these trips as much as Ven did, they were the one afternoon a week he allowed himself to get away from the pressures of work and everything else that his status demanded of him. Anything that sweetened Master’s temper was, in Ven’s opinion, very much to be encouraged, especially when that thing did not require any work on his part, or involve the inflicting of discomfort or pain on his body.

It was undeniably chillier now than it had been the day Master bought Briseis and the trees were tending more towards orange and brown than yellow and orange. Winter was very definitely on the way, and Ven couldn’t help being thankful to live in Italia rather than Britannia or somewhere equally chilly; he’d seen pictures of snow and while it looked sort of fun, it also looked very cold.

The residential home was nice and warm, at least, and Elysia was sitting by a window, winding wool with Briseis, who bounced up when she saw them, although she kept her hands steady enough.

"Domine, I got ever so many things to show you," she said, and in the exact same breath, "Hi, Ven!"

Ven grinned, astonished that she hadn’t dropped the wool to wave at him.

"I like your toga, Domine, it’s real pretty…" 

"This is a pallium, Briseis, I don’t like wearing my toga to drive in because it gets all mixed up with the gear lever, and it’s very uncomfortable."

Ven would not mention the things he had brought yet, not until Briseis was free of the skeins of wool and wouldn’t undo all the work of getting them so neat with one thoughtless impatient shake.

Ven’s master didn’t have the same sense, of course. 

"I thought we would take a walk down to the forum," he said, and Ven had to step forward to rescue the skeins of wool that were nearly flung everywhere as Briseis dropped what she had been doing to give Master a hug.

He could have sworn Elysia winked at him as he laid the wool to one side, on the low table where there were several skeins already, arranged by colour, ready to be sent to the weaver. _She worked in wool_ was still a valued thing to have on a gravestone and it was not at all uncommon to see a loom set up in a home - certainly most slave quarters had one, and very often there was one in the atrium, too, for the ladies of the house.

It was three of them who walked down to the forum, in the end; Master had booked a scooter for Elysia. They were an uncommon sight in the Empire, where health and vitality were prized and ill-health was to be pitied, and hidden away if possible. The slave residents here had access to scooters but only if they were going beyond reasonable walking distance for their age and health - and the forum was too far for Elysia to walk, according to her records (or so Ven was informed).

So Master walked beside Elysia who was riding on an electric scooter, and Ven and Briseis walked behind.

The village was laid out like any Roman settlement apart from Rome itself, in nice straight streets, though these did not have the high kerbs typical of most towns. 

The few roads where cars were permitted skirted the housing, one running behind the forum to allow deliveries in overnight, and the others leading to parking by the residential and nursing homes, which would allow an ambulance to attend an emergency call. The forum itself was also accessible to ambulances and served, so Ven gathered, as the emergency rendezvous for any other calls.

It was a nice forum, too, though missing the big public buildings of the Forum Romānum in Rome itself, or any of the other towns in the Empire. It replaced those with īnsulae on either side, with shops on the ground floors and residential space above, and a small Vestal temple at one end, with a fountain playing at the opposite end of the small forum. The only gods that slaves were really allowed access to, apart from the household Lares, Penates and Vesta, were the local neighbourhood Lares and the gods of medicine, Apollo and Aesculapius and the like, and some of the provincial deities. It would be odd indeed to have a temple to any of the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) in a village mostly populated by slaves.

The units under the portico consisted of things like a hairdresser, a barber, chemist, a branch of the Argentāria Romāna bank (probably for the free people), a branch of the Slave Advocacy Service and a coffee shop - slaves might be discouraged from drinking coffee, but all the inhabitants here were valued possessions of their masters, who didn’t mind indulging them with coffee, or tea (it was perhaps not surprising that a number of elderly slaves liked tea).

They must look like any normal family having lunch out, Ven thought - the master, his mother and daughter and the slave attending them…

The table they found themselves sitting at was low enough that Ven could kneel quite comfortably and still reach the cup of (decaffeinated) coffee he was allowed to have - a rare treat, especially with the sugar Master told him to add because he would probably not like it otherwise. Elysia sat on a chair, a concession to her age and status, as did Master, who told the barista to bring a stool for Briseis. If she knelt, she would not be able to see over the table properly, and could not pass Elysia’s drink to her.

"Ven, why don’t you show Briseis what you made for her yesterday?" Master said, over the rim of his coffee cup.

"You made something for me?" Briseis very nearly spilt her own drink of milk in excitement.

Ven grinned and pulled the pack of homemade cards from his satchel and passed them over. "It’s a kind of memory game," he said. "If you shuffle them and then lay them out in rows… the idea is to match a pair of cards. One card in each pair’s got the word printed on, and the other’s got the picture. If you get a pair, you get to keep it and try for another, but if the word and picture don’t match up, it’s someone else’s turn."

"He’s a very intelligent young man you’ve got there, Drusus," Elysia said, as Ven began to shuffle the cards.

"I know. He was sold as a house-slave, can you believe it?"

Ven ducked his head a little as he passed the cards to Briseis, who lay them out on the table. "No peeking, Master!"

"Gods forbid!"

"Master, will you play?" Ven asked, looking up.

"No, I don’t think so. You and Briseis may, though."

It was a fun game, and Ven was grateful that the set had included twenty-five pairs, rather than some even number.

"Your reading is coming along, Briseis," Master observed, as she puzzled out the word larārium.

It was the girl’s turn to duck her head as she coloured furiously.

Ven leaned across to whisper in her ear, and she swallowed before managing, barely above a whisper, "Thank you, Master!"

"There’s a good girl. I think you have time for one more game before we have to return home," Master said, and sat back, content to watch his slaves relax a little.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation:  
>  _vernae_ : plural of _verna_ , someone born a slave  
>  _nexi_ : plural of _nexus_ , a person enslaved for debt  
>  _rei_ : plural of reus, a person enslaved as a punishment for crime  
>  _tabula_ : tablet computer  
>  _pecūlium_ : a slave’s savings to buy his freedom  
>  _tablīnum_ : home office, study, used by the master of the house  
>  _Kerne_ : the equivalent of Skype, a VOIP program  
>  _Domine_ : Master (when addressed directly to a person)  
>  _pallium_ : colourful wrap or cloak worn by citizens, less formal than a toga, and generally pinned at the shoulder with a brooch  
>  _forum_ : plaza, square, the business heart of a town (or large village, in this case)  
>  _Forum Romanum_ : Forum of Rome, the primary forum in Rome, although there were others. This is where the Senate House and Temple of Vesta were located  
>  _īnsulae_ : plural of _īnsula_ , an island. Used of a low-rise block of flats with shops on the ground floor, which made up a single city block (being an island surrounded by streets)  
>  _Argentāria Romāna_ : Bank of Rome (I’m perfectly aware that as used in the text, it reads ‘Bank of Rome bank’.)  
>  _larārium_ : shrine to the household gods, usually located in the atrium


End file.
